‘The Tragedy of Man’

According to David Frum, Niccolo Macchiavelli identified “the tragedy of man” as a failure to adapt to change.

Thus Frum concludes an essay, posted Saturday, in which he rebuffs fellow conservatives.

For those who lean right but believe the current Right is lost in the forest, there’s much to like in Frum’s self-defense. The Economist’s Lexington spotlights one notable excerpt; Andrew Sullivan focuses on another. For me, this was the crux of the essay (emphases added) …

The argument in which I’ve been engaged … is an argument (as I see it) over what conservatism should be: Is it a philosophy of government? Or is it an expression of cultural alienation? Is it politics or is it protest?

With horrible irony, I see my fellow conservatives in the United States opting out of politics at exactly the moment when they are most needed. The Obama administration is careening toward a more expensive and interventionist government, toward reckless spending and destructive taxation. This is where I came into politics 30 years ago, and I will stand again on the same side I stood then. But now as then, my side will only be successful to the extent it is knowledgeable, to the extent it is public-spirited, to the extent that it is based on evidence and research, to the extent that it advocates the greater good rather than the narrow interests and values of one class or one geographic section.

Read it all.